Albertson, who started on the back nine, double-bogeyed the par-4 third and ninth holes to finish at 3-over 74 and a tie for 40th of 144 players on the par-71, 7,028-yard course. The rising Georgia Tech sophomore and former Etowah standout was 1 under through his first 11 holes before the double bogey at No. 3.
Albertson followed with a bogey at No. 4 before a birdie at the par-4 eighth moved him back to 1 over. However, his tee shot on No. 9 landed in the second cut of the rough, and his second shot ended up on a hill near the green. Albertson’s pitch onto the green rolled to within 10 feet of the hole, but he couldn’t save par and ended his round with a three-putt for double bogey.
Trying to forget the 40 he shot over his final nine holes, Albertson will tee off at 9:10 a.m. today after making the cut down to the top 60 and ties.
The remaining field is vying for six automatic berths and two alternate positions to the U.S. Amateur Championship, which will be held next month at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo.
“It’s as frustrating as I could have possibly shot,” Albertson said. “I had a lot of short misses for birdie and had two (double bogeys) on my back nine, so it’s kind of frustrating at the moment, but I’ll be fine. I’ll come back here (today) and try to put up a good number, so we’ll see what happens.”
Albertson is seven shots off the pace set by first-round leaders Ollie Schniederjans — Albertson’s Georgia Tech teammate — and Chris Waters. Six others are another stroke back at 68, leaving a lot of ground for Albertson to make up.
Albertson’s front nine didn’t translate well through his back nine. Although the wind blew stronger as he finished up his round, Albertson played his game, but managed to come up short on the greens.
“The wind picked up there on the back nine,” he said. “It was kind of calm (Tuesday) morning, but it sort of played a little bit of a factor later on. There weren’t any adjustments really to make. I just missed a lot of short putts. I just need to put a good roll on it.
“I’m hitting it fine and hitting a lot of greens and getting it close. I made two bad swings (Tuesday) and, unfortunately, it cost me a couple of shots. I had some short birdie putts go off to the side. Hopefully, the balls will go in (today).”
Joining Albertson for the final round will be Canton residents Justin Johnson and Madison Turner, who narrowly made the cut with 75s to finish as one of 15 golfers tied for 48th overall.
Johnson was 2 over through 16 holes before a double bogey on No. 8 almost left him beyond the cut. Turner was 1 over through the front nine, but he bogeyed three holes on the back nine to finish his round in a less than stellar position.
“I was just scrambling on the back nine,” Turner said. “I had a lip-out birdie on 11, I bogeyed 12 and on 15 and, on 16, I lost two balls in the water.
“I played the par-3s bad, except for maybe one or two holes. I need to limit my mistakes to the fairways. The rough out here is pretty thick, so it’s hard to get on the green from there.”
Turner will tee off at 8:30 a.m., with Johnson following 10 minutes later.
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